Debian Sid Desktop Base

Introduction
This article aims to be a quick, high level run through of setting up a desktop system running Debian Sid. Essentially it provides base applications and configuration to get a minimal system running X from which you can then build a UI on.

Text highlighted yellow should be reviewed and updated where applicable for your installation.

Install
Install Debian Wheezy with a minimal install, numerous guides exist online for this.

Enabling Sid
Update your apt sources to use sid with a Debian mirror closer to your location by reviewing the available Debian mirrors.

I use the file for my sid apt sources.

mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list

cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list <<EOF deb http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ debian/ sid main non-free contrib deb-src http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ debian/ sid main non-free contrib EOF

Now update and upgrade.

apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade

User Account
useradd --comment "Firstname Surname" --groups sudo,cdrom,floppy,sudo,audio,dip,video,plugdev,fuse --create-home --shell /bin/bash --user-group myuser passwd myuser

X
apt-get install xorg mesa-utils xbase-clients xsel dbus-x11 xfonts-terminus xfonts-terminus-dos \ xfonts-terminus-oblique ttf-mscorefonts-installer gsfonts-x11 ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation ttf-freefont \ fonts-droid libgl1-mesa-dri

apt-get install desktop-base dmz-cursor-theme xdg-user-dirs xdg-utils libfile-mimeinfo-perl menu-l10n \ libegl1-mesa-drivers libnet-dbus-perl libx11-protocol-perl myspell- en-au aspell- en

Alsa
apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils libasound2-plugins

systemd
apt-get install systemd policykit-1 upower udisks libpam-ck-connector sg3-utils

i3
apt-get install i3 i3lock suckless-tools i3status dunst libcap2-bin libpam-cap

Iceweasel
apt-get install iceweasel flashplugin-nonfree default-jre icedtea-7-plugin aspell-en myspell-en-au